Hall of Fame
KAYLA BLACKBURN
- Sport: Women's Tennis
- Graduation Year: 2009
- Highlights: All-time leader in SRU program history in career wins with 191 combined wins … ranks first in SRU history in singles wins (98) and second in doubles wins (93) … four-time first team All-PSAC … PSAC Rookie of the Year in 1996 … led SRU to NCAA Tournament all four years of her career, including trip to quarterfinals in 2008.
Simply put, Kayla Blackburn is the winningest women's tennis player in Slippery Rock program history. She racked up more singles wins than any other woman to wear the Green and White with 98 individual wins and combined that with 93 doubles wins to set the SRU program record with 191 career wins, a record that still stands today.
Blackburn burst onto the scene her freshman year in 2005-06 and went on to be named the PSAC and East Region Rookie of the Year while also being named to first team All-PSAC honors. Along the way that year, she teamed with Ashley Michaux to set the SRU program record for a doubles winning streak when they won 12 straight matches. She helped lead SRU to the NCAA Tournament for the first of what would become four-straight appearances in the national tournament.
She picked up right where she left off the following year, earning first team All-PSAC honors and leading SRU back to the NCAA Tournament in 2006-07, setting up for an even more memorable junior year in 2007-08. The following year, she tripled up her first team All-PSAC awards and led SRU on its deepest postseason run in program history, advancing to the national quarterfinals as one of just 16 teams that earned a trip to the finals site in 2007-08. That year, she put together two of the best streaks in program history when she won 14 consecutive singles matches and teamed with Laura Handy to tie her own record with 12 straight doubles wins.
Blackburn and Handy would finish their doubles career with an astounding 53-14 record together, establishing an SRU standard that is 17 wins more than any other doubles combo in program history.
She closed her career with another stellar season in 2008-09, winning 24 individual matches at the No. 1 position and leading SRU back to the NCAA Tournament for a fourth time. Over her four-year career, The Rock posted an incredible 81-22 overall record in dual matches.
Blackburn graduated from SRU with a degree in marketing in 2009 before her career took her to Texas, where she currently works for Signify Health, a healthcare company providing home and virtual health care to Medicare and Medicaid members. She stays connected to tennis by teaching lessons and working with Sets & the City, a non-profit in the Dallas area that works to grow the game of tennis among adults. The group also organizes fundraisers for the Dallas Tennis Education Association, which provides financial support and scholarships to underprivileged kids.
She and her wife, Monica Leary, reside in Richardson, Texas.
